The Worst Case of Sportsmanship I Have Ever Seen

Before I get into what happened today in Durham, let me first say this, I hope the players, fans and coaches won't forget what happened to get them there. Trailing 6-2 going into the 9th, the Tigers came off the mat with 4 runs to tie the game at 6-6. The Blue Devils could do nothing in the bottom of the 9th and so it was on to extra innings. Neither team threatened in the 10th, then came the top of the 11th. Kyle Parker's two run homer to the opposite field gave the Tigers an 8-6 lead with nobody out. It seemed to be just the right thing to get the Tigers out of this awful funk, and that is when IT happened.

Parker had not even reached the dugout yet when a Duke official came down on the field to let the umpires know that a threatening storm was approaching and that lightning was west of Chapel Hill. He had received this information via a text message. The game was placed into a mandatory 30 minute lightning delay and even though rain was approaching no effort was made to put the tarp on the infield. Here is a side note. After Duke had beaten the Tigers 10-1 on Saturday and after the Tigers had boarded the bus to head for the hotel, the Duke players and coaching staff was grooming the field to get it ready for Sunday. It was common knowledge that there was going to be rain over night, but only the home plate area and the pitching mound were covered. The tarp was not placed on the infield. When the Tigers arrived at Jack Coombs Field today they arrived to find a muddy, sloppy infield with a 50% chance of rain during the game. The Duke staff knew they had split the series and were just a half game back of the Tigers for the final spot in the ACC Baseball Tournament in Jacksonville. A loss and they would be one and half games back, a win and they are a half game up. Do you see where I am going with this?

At 4:05pm the decision is made to hold the game until 5:30pm with the storm upon us and still no effort is made to put the tarp on the field. When Jack Leggett asked Duke head coach Sean McNally why the tarp had not been pulled his response was that he did not want to endanger his players with the threat of lightning in the area. His response should have been that he thought he was going to be a half game up and now he was staring at being one and half games back of the Tigers, I can live with a tie knowing we are about to be rained out.

Coach McNally's decision went against everything that is baseball. It all started with the decision not to put the tarp on the field Saturday night and it carried over into today's game. No other place in the ACC would this have happened, but it happened here today. If there are baseball gods they will replay the Blue Devils for what happened today. At no time today did Coach McNally think about what was best for the game, the ACC, or his opponent. He only thought about what was best for him and his team. It was the worst case of sportsmanship I have ever seen, at a university that pride's themselves for being sportsman.